The present invention relates to a method and means for transmitting service pages implemented in a telecommunication network, such as in an Internet network, to a terminal. The invention is suitable for use particularly in connection with portable terminals, such as mobile stations.
Digital telephone exchanges and terminals, such as telephones of a wired network and mobile stations, provide for a number of new services to be utilised. One of them is the commonly used identification service of a caller (subscriber A), i.e., the CLIP (Calling Line Identification Presentation) service. With the help of this service, the identifier of the subscriber A, substantially the telephone number of the subscriber A, is transmitted to a receiving terminal (subscriber B), wherein it is typically displayed on the display of the terminal of the subscriber B. On the basis of this information, the subscriber B can see from which number the call is coming. It is also very common that the most frequently used telephone numbers and the names and other identifiers of the corresponding persons have been stored in the terminal of the subscriber B. This function is used particularly in mobile telephones, wherein it is possible to display, on the display of the terminal of the subscriber B, the name or some other identifier of the subscriber A, e.g., the name of the subscriber A""s company, on the basis of the telephone number of the subscriber A. Another new service provided by digital telephone networks is the so-called CoLP (Connected Line Identification Presentation) service. This service transmits to the caller (subscriber A) information on what is the actual identifier (telephone number) of the opposite end (subscriber B) of the connected line. With the help of this service, the subscriber A receives information on the subscriber B""s actual telephone number of that moment even if the subscriber B has carried out a call transfer.
The supplementary services relating to the identification of a line, such as the CLIP and CoLP services presented above, defined in the GSM mobile telephone system, have been presented in the GSM Standard GSM 02.81 of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). It defines, amongst other things, in which form the CLIP and CoLP data are transmitted in the GSM system. Both the CLIP and CoLP services contain an extremely limited amount of information. It would be useful if, in addition to the CLIP and CoLP services, it would also be possible to transmit other information.
An increasing number of companies and corporations, in particular, but also private persons have taken into use services based on the Internet network. Due to advanced terminals and more efficient network connections, it is possible to transmit, in the Internet network, various kinds of data including speech and video pictures. Hypermedia pages that have been implemented in the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) in a WWW (World Wide Web) environment have become particularly popular. On these hypermedia pages, it is possible to create interactive documents or purely informative service pages. Similarly, the pages can also be used for advertising or for providing the address or personal data of a company or a private person possibly together with maps and pictures.
The Internet network consists of a number of servers and telecommunication networks, which transmit messages in a digital form. The messages, such as, e.g., hypermedia pages, are transferred as files from one server to another and finally to a receiving terminal. The HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is commonly used for data transmission, the protocol transmitting the information intended for transfer in a form of a packet between the terminals on the basis of a URL (Uniform Resource Locater) address information characteristic of each terminal.
A method and means have now been invented by means of which it is possible to utilise service pages provided by a telecommunication network, e.g., the Internet network, by means of wired or wireless terminals coupled to the telecommunication network, on the basis of supplementary services, such as the CLIP and CoLP services presented above, relating to line identification. The service pages may contain, e.g., text, graphics or moving video pictures. In a communication system according to the present invention, it is possible to transmit service pages according to several principles. In a first embodiment, a caller (subscriber A) can link the address of the desired service page (in the Internet network, a URL identifier) with the subscriber""s own identifier (in the GSM system, with the information transmitted by the CLIP service, i.e., one""s own telephone number), on the basis of which a receiving terminal (subscriber B) can retrieve the selected service page from the telecommunication network and display it on the display of the receiving terminal. This method can be utilised, e.g., for advertising purposes, whereupon a teleseller transmits additional information to the customers called. In a second embodiment of the present invention, a receiving terminal (subscriber B) links, on the basis of the telephone number of a subscriber A, the service page he has selected with the number in question and retrieves the service page to his own display. This proceeding is suitable, e.g., for a seller (subscriber B) receiving calls for presenting customer data, whereupon he can, on the basis of the caller""s CLIP information, retrieve from his own or the company""s database the caller""s (subscriber A) volume of orders in hand, prices or even credit information.
The chapter above presented different embodiments of the present invention, wherein the desired service page was retrieved from the subscriber A on to the display of the subscriber B on the basis of the CLIP service transmitted to the subscriber B. Similarly, the desired service page can be transmitted on the basis of a CoLP service. In a third embodiment of the present invention, a service page selected by the subscriber B, which can be used, e.g., for advertising purposes, is transmitted on to the display of the subscriber A. This embodiment is suitable, e.g., for situations, where a customer calls the telephone number of a company providing certain products or services and receives automatically to his terminal additional information on the products or services provided by the company in the form of a service page. However, the use of the CoLP service instead of the CLIP service gives one advantage. The subscriber A, at whom the advertisement is directed, can be certain of the advertisement""s origin because, for example, call transfers implemented in a telephone network cannot affect the authenticity of the CoLP service. This method is also extremely suitable for key telephone systems, wherein it is possible to implement, e.g., in a hospital on duty, a service which automatically tells the subscriber A the contact information, rank and, for example, the special expertise of the person who has answered the key telephone. On the basis of this information, the customer knows to whom he is speaking and can ask the call to be transferred to another person if necessary.
In a fourth embodiment of the present invention, a service page that he himself has selected is transmitted to the subscriber A on the basis of the CoLP service. This enables, for example, the expansion of the teleselling application presented in the second embodiment of the present invention so that the customer""s volume of orders in hand, prices or even credit information, stored in the company""s database, are also automatically available when a seller acts as the subscriber A, i.e., calls the customers (subscribers B). This system is safe, because the reliability of the CoLP information guarantees that the seller can be certain with whom he is doing business. However, nothing prevents the seller application presented above from being further expanded so that said service page is transmitted to both the seller and the customer, whereupon they can refer to the same database during the discussion. In his case, however, safety factors (e.g., to prevent credit information and/or other information intended for the company""s internal use from being transmitted) should be taken into consideration.
In the embodiments of the present invention presented above, a reference table, typical of the invention, is required, wherefrom a URL address of the desired service page is retrieved on the basis of the information transmitted by the CLIP or CoLP service. The reference table can be located in different servers of a telecommunication network (e.g., the Internet), in servers implemented in connection with a telephone exchange or a private branch exchange, in a company""s own data network (e.g., intranet) or in a user""s own computer. It is also possible to store the reference table, e.g., in the memory of a portable terminal, such as a communicator like the Nokia 9000 Communicator. In this case, the transmission of the service page speeds up, because it is not necessary to retrieve the URL address of the service page from the server implemented in connection with the telecommunication network or the telephone exchange, but the communicator can down load the desired service page directly from the URL address it has retrieved from its memory.
Thus, the transmission of a service page in a communication system according to the present invention enables, amongst other things, an Internet home page, characteristic of each individual or company, to be displayed on the display of the terminal of the subscriber B instead of the telephone number or the name of the subscriber A. Hence, the present invention provides versatile and flexible opportunities to increase the amount of information transmitted on the basis of the CLIP and CoLP services and lays a foundation for providing new types of information services. The invention is suitable for use in connection with both terminals coupled to a wired network and portable terminals, such as mobile stations.
The invention is characterised in what has been said in the characterising parts of Claims 1, 7 and 8.